Crybaby
by ChoCedric
Summary: Cho never used to be much of a crier. But the day of the third task, her heart is ripped out of her chest, and everything in her world changes. And crybaby becomes her new title. The hatred she feels when that word is spat at her is unbearable. Cho/Cedric.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Author's Note: I didn't just write this. I wrote this years ago and it was originally two separate fics, but the subject was so similar in both of them that I decided to combine them. Please review and let me know what you think!

Crybaby

By: ChoCedric

Cho has never been much of a crier. She is sure she did as a baby many times, but when she started to take in the world around her, she was a smiling, happy girl. She became popular, made endless amounts of friends, and seemed to float through the world, the life and soul of the party.

Then, she met Cedric, and he taught her how to love. He taught her that there was so much more to life than superficiality, clothes, and make-up. He taught her how to appreciate nature, beauty, and the life that thrummed through Earth every day.

Yes, Cho has never considered herself much of a crier, but the moment she sees Cedric's body, lying upon the Quidditch pitch with his gray eyes glazed over and lifeless, she feels as though her world has ended. At first, she feels a sense of nonreality- this is not happening to her. She is outside looking in ... this is happening to someone else, not her. That is not the person who taught her how to love, lying completely devoid of life. That can't be him!

And that can't be her, running over to him, shaking him and screaming, screaming, screaming, "WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! PLEASE! CEDRIC! CEDRIC! CEEEEEEEEEEEEDRIIIIIIIIIIIII IIC!" She's staring into his eyes, trying to seek a connection that's not there anymore. He simply lies there, not moving, not hugging her, not taking her hand ... he's just staring.

The next days go by in nothing but a blur of tears. Before she knows it, it's Cedric's funeral, and his beautiful body, the hands she loved to hold, the lips she loved to kiss, the arms that used to hold her close, are being lowered into the cold, unforgiving ground, and dirt is being tossed upon them. She doesn't even realize it's her doing it, but she lets out a bloodcurdling, shrill shriek as it's happening. Stares fall upon her, but she doesn't care. Love has flown out the window, and she swears she'll never find it again.

And she finds that after Cedric's funeral, the world seems to go back to normal. Her parents expect her to get over her boyfriend's death like it's nothing, her friends expect her to start being the shining, smiling Cho Chang again. But the distraught teenaged girl finds she cannot do that. Each day is spent missing him, and all their summer plans have been dashed. Each second without his warm embrace, without his sweet Cologne, without his tender kisses pains her more than anything in the world.

And when she goes back to school, everyone talks about how their summers have gone; no one seems to remember the tragedy. When Cho passes the other students in the hallways, their talk turns to hushed whispers: "That Cho girl, she still hasn't gotten over it." "She's pathetic." "Crybaby." "She never really loved him." "He' was too good for her."

She runs to the bathroom, tears streaming down her red, burning face, and she knows that their words about her not loving him are completely, utterly false. As she stares at her rreflection in the mirror, she sees his lifeless, staring gray eyes inside her mind. And she knows that no matter how many days pass, no matter how many nights she cries herself to sleep, no one will ever understand. Life without Cedric is worse than a stint in Azkaban, worse than being given the Dementor's Kiss. It hurts worse than a nail to the gut. And no one, no one in the world will ever get it. Never.

How would they like it, she thinks viciously, if their soulmate, the one they knew they were destined to be with, was snatched away from them, and they were only able to look into his lifeless eyes? They fail to realize that all her dreams were shattered, and if she has to go to the bathroom and cry, they should just leave her alone!

Marietta is the only one, the only one out of all the stupid girls who claimed they were her friends to stick by her. That's why she didn't dump her when she betrayed Harry, because she was the only one who understood. She was the one who calmed Cho after a nightmare of his lifeless gray eyes. She was the one who dried her tears and told her that it was okay to cry. The only one.

Crybaby. Whenever Cho hears the word, it makes her go rigid with bitterness and anger. To think that that's what people define her as now, and she never used to be a crier. None of the other people at Hogwarts know what it's like for her. They have no idea of what it's like to have your heart ripped out of your chest and stomped on. They have no idea of what it's like to have your chance for happiness rotting six feet beneath the earth. And they never will, she thinks angrily as more tears stream down her face, and she's drowning in the feeling of missing Cedric. Every day is now spent waiting, waiting for the moment when she can be in his arms again. And then she won't have to cry anymore. 


End file.
